Greek Defense Minister, Panos Kammenos has said that if Greece cannot reach a new debt agreement with the euro zone it will look elsewhere for help.

He warned: "What we want is a deal. But if there is no deal - hopefully there will be - [but] if we see that Germany remains rigid and wants to blow apart Europe, then we have the obligation to go to Plan B. Plan B is to get funding from another source."

The minister added: "It could the United States at best, it could be Russia, it could be China or other countries."

Mr Kammenos is the leader of the Independent Greeks - Syriza's junior partners in government.

It is a right-wing nationalist party, but it shares Syriza's anti-austerity stance.

Heading into this week's crucial EU meetings euro zone members have showed little willingness to ease demands for budget cuts and economic reforms in Greece.

According to the Sunday Business Post, Ireland's Economic Management Council met last week and agreed that Ireland should not support any push for a debt write-down.

Yesterday Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney suggested to RTE that if the euro zone strikes a deal with Greece then Ireland should get similar treatment.

Irish Times report that these comments angered some European officials. Senior euro zone sources have told the paper that a deal for Ireland is not on the table - and that the issue of Irish debt would be "excluded" from discussions over Greece.

The minister reiterated his previously stated stance to the paper saying:

"Everybody wants to be helpful to Greece here, but we can’t apply a different standard to Greece just because they have a new government who are making demands."

All 19 euro area finance minister will meet tomorrow on the eve of the EU leaders' summit.